Netflix, Spotify and Hulu handed partial IPR victory

by yoyok

Ilustrasi, (gettyimages)

Acaciapat.com – US-based licensing company Marathon Patent Group has had four of its patent claims invalidated following an inter partes review (IPR) instigated by streaming services Hulu, Spotify and Netflix.

In a decision handed down on June 1, the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) held four claims to be unpatentable.

The IPR was filed by Spotify, Netflix and Hulu and targeted US patent number 7,191,233, called “system for automated, mid-session, user-directed, device-to-device session transfer system.”

The ‘233 patent is owned by CFD Research, a subsidiary of Marathon Patent Group.

CFD sued Hulu, Spotify and Netflix for patent infringement at the US District Court for the District of Delaware in 2014.

But the companies challenged 30 of the patent’s 43 claims. The district court proceedings were stayed pending the outcome of the IPR.

But the PTAB’s ruling this month only found four to be unpatentable.

Doug Croxall, founder and chief executive of Marathon Patent Group, said: “We are pleased with the USPTO’s decisions finding that the vast majority of the patent’s 43 claims are patentable.”